Dear Susan,

Thank you for this soulful question, which moves me to ask another of you: are you concerned that your sins, all committed long after the life and death of Jesus, might not be forgiven? If so, I hold your question with particular gentleness. It saddens me that you might be feeling cursed beyond hope for your failings.

Your question suggests that you might be wrestling with fundamentalist dogma, which is the dominant paradigm of Christianity in America. It teaches that we are all wretched sinners deserving of eternal punishment and that the only way out of this predicament is to accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, who, through his sacrificial death on the cross, delivered us from hell.

But this is far from the only way to understand the meaning of the gospel story. Jesus died because he upset the apple-cart of Roman rule in Israel at the time. He was killed, as were very many others, for being perceived as a rabble-rouser. And how did he rouse the rabble? By practicing and preaching unconditional love that blew through and past the social and theological conventions of the time. He practiced and preached a love that forgives whatever human failings happened up to his time, and for time ever after – including your time.

The idea of blood sacrifice as atonement for sin made sense to people in first century Israel. Pretty much all meat sold in markets throughout the Roman Empire came from animals that had been killed in religious rituals. At its best, this cultural practice was a way of deeply honoring the animals whose bodies nourished the bodies of people. People had close relationships with the animals they ate: to be nourished, people had to sacrifice those relationships – not a trivial matter. Rituals of blood sacrifice recognized that killing and eating animals required a restoration of the relationship of humans with the world God made.

Today we go to the store and buy meat in shrink-wrapped plastic packages. We don’t know the animals we eat. We’ve lost awareness of the sacred thread that ties us together in the web of life. We’ve permanently lost the cultural context in which early Christians interpreted Jesus’ death on the cross, and modern fundamentalist Christians refuse to recognize this problem. The idea of blood sacrifice is bizarre and disgusting to us. So it is no wonder that we struggle with the idea that Jesus died for our sins. That understanding of the cross has a basis in scripture. But it’s not the only biblical interpretation of Jesus’ crucifixion.

In Numbers 21:9, Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole in order for the people of Israel to gaze on it and be cured of snake bites. Jesus said in John 3: 14: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The snake on the pole (an ancient symbol of medicine) was a form of homeopathy, which was the main kind of medical treatment in the ancient world. Homeopathy is the idea that a dose of that which ails you is the cure. (Vaccination is a modern example with proven medical efficacy!) Jesus said that a dose of suffering - delivered by gazing at the cross - was the cure for the human condition. It is a paradox, but despite its seeming contradiction, it works! Healing and reconciliation begin with an honest, direct encounter with sin and suffering. This spiritual homeopathy is the way that the cross of Christ “saves” us from our failings and struggles.

May you rest in the love of Jesus the Christ, a love that surrounds and reconciles your past and your future, forgiving all, and bringing you into communion with the Divine!

~ Rev. Jim Burklo